U.S. Census: Birmingham population down by 30,000, but downtown and UAB areas see gains

Buried in the gloomy news the 2010 U.S. Census delivered for the city of Birmingham was at least a glimmer of hope: Two census tracts comprising downtown and UAB gained population over the past decade, a trend that can be capitalized going forward if the city makes a concerted effort.

"There needs to be a plan," said Jeremy Erdreich, an architect involved in downtown redevelopment.

The two tracts in the center city added 2,209 residents, far too few to offset declines elsewhere.

The city lost 30,000 people overall, down to 212,237, with the steepest declines coming in census tracts in and around West End, near the Birmingham airport, in and around North Birmingham and in the Roebuck and northern East Lake areas. Birmingham lost 12.6 percent of its population between 2000 and 2010, an even faster rate of loss than the city saw between 1960 and 1970, when the decline began and the population dropped to 300,910 from 1960's 340,887. In each subsequent decade, the city's population has seen declines ranging from 5.5 percent to 8.7 percent, but over the past decade the momentum accelerated.

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Of 211 census tracts in Jefferson and Shelby counties, the 10 tracts with the biggest losses were all in the city of Birmingham.

According to Rosie O'Beirne, an urban anthropologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, most of the initial out-migration from Birmingham was probably driven by white flight. But today it is more driven by desire to find better housing. According to the census, the city's white population dropped 11,199 in the past decade, but the black population dropped 22,581.

The housing stock in Birmingham is aging and has increasingly fallen into disrepair. Meanwhile, the city has seen relatively little new home construction.

"At one time, race was the largest factor, but as the housing has aged, it is middle-class flight," O'Beirne said. "Everyone wants out."

Those who can afford it are attracted to the new construction hot spots like unincoporated McCalla. "You get more bang for your buck the farther from the city center," O'Beirne said. Vacancies In what was once a densely populated area west of Princeton Baptist Medical Center, entire blocks of houses sit boarded up and vacant. In the 10 Jefferson County census tracts that lost the most in population, there were 15,855 vacant housing units, a vacancy rate of 25 percent.

Loretta Mitchell, 56, lives near Woodward Park and on Friday was walking toward the house she is renting with the support of the federal Section 8 program. The aging home stayed in a state of disrepair despite her complaints, she said. Down the street, an apartment complex burned and is boarded up. Like abandoned homes and complexes in the area, no repairs have started, and none appear to be on the way.

"Ain't nothing but drugs around here," Mitchell complained.

The situation varies from street to street in West End. For blocks, there are intact neighborhoods, without vacancies, where residents plant flowers and care for their homes and yards.

Then, a few blocks later, a burned or vacant house appears, and similar problems seem to have spread like a contagion. Some entire multi-block areas have been abandoned. On Monroe and Madison Avenues, a large constellation of apartment buildings are empty, surrounded by weeds grown wild. A fallen tree leans against one building. Trash is dumped in the street.

Erdreich said other cities with similar depopulation problems, such as Detroit, are exploring ways to consolidate population in viable neighborhoods and letting abandoned portions of the city revert to farmland or natural areas.

"There have been some cities that have been exploring some fairly radical ideas," he said. "I'm not saying that is what we need to do, but we do need to think of ways we can bring people back."

Chuck Faush, Mayor William Bell's chief of staff, said Bell wants to develop a robust response to the population loss.

"He's looking to aggressively attack the sliding numbers, and it's going to be both a short-term and a long-term approach," Faush said.

Repairing the quality and reputation of the Birmingham school system is urgent, but is likely a project that will take place over many years, O'Beirne said, and it shouldn't preclude a concerted effort to attract people without school-aged children to the city. In the United States, households without school-aged children now outnumber those with young children at home.

"People with families are not going to be coming back to Birmingham, at least for the short term," O'Beirne said.

The population growth in the city center and around the University of Alabama at Birmingham, though modest, hints at the possibilities. O'Beirne said UAB's new master plan and the development of Railroad Park are opportunities to build on.

"I think we have a potential to become an urban college atmosphere," she said.

Erdreich said there should be a focused strategic plan to build that urban population with empty nesters, singles and young couples without children. "Other cities have been able to staunch their decline and bring new demographics into the city," he said.

Birmingham also has a substantial share of one of the area's hottest census tracts, the Oxmoor Valley. While the growth of that tract during the past decade was driven by Hoover's Ross Bridge, the area offers Birmingham the kind of potential that seems to be missing in much of the city.

Faush acknowledged that swinging the long-running population trend to positive is going to take a long time, but he feels some positive momentum has gathered recently, something that couldn't be picked up against a decade of decline.

"You can ask people who live, work and play in Birmingham, and what we are finding, after meeting with all sectors of folks in the city, is that there is a new attitude," Faush said. "It may not be reflected within the last 10 years of numbers, but it certainly is reflected in the last year of engagement."